Port Harcourt, Nigeria--Voting in Nigeria's regional elections extended into Sunday in the restive Rivers state after irregularities at some polling stations, as the nation anxiously awaited the results.
Rivers, a southern oil-producing hub, has emerged as flashpoint through Nigeria's historic 2015 election cycle, and security forces were deployed heavily around the capital Port Harcourt in anticipation of disputes over the results.
The collation of results was under way in the battleground of Lagos, Nigeria's economic capital, where President Goodluck Jonathan's Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was hoping to take power for the first time since the end of military rule in 1999.
But despite an aggressive campaign from the PDP's Jimi Agbaje, Lagosians may stick with the All Progressives Congress (APC) and vote in Akinwunmi Ambode, who is hoping to succeed outgoing governor Babatunde Fashola.
Partial and unofficial results reported by several local media outlets indicated the outcome in Lagos and surrounding state of the same name was too close to call.
A total of 29 governorship and deputy governorship positions from Nigeria's 36 states are up for grabs as well as seats in all of the states' legislatures, with results expected to trickle in on Sunday.
Governors are influential figures in Africa's most populous nation, with near-total control of their states and collective power at a national level to bolster or check the presidency.
The APC is seeking to build on its current control of 14 states after its candidate Muhammadu Buhari won the presidential race two weeks ago, in the first democratic transfer of power in Nigeria's history.
The PDP currently controls 21 states.
AFP
